Events

Though it's full of abstract forms, what could be more concrete than nature? This quiet paradox beats at the heart of the new triple show at Durham's Craven Allen Gallery, which runs through September 8 after this opening reception. But the three formally diverse exhibits become one in the resonances of their titles and themes. In Layered, FRANK Gallery member artist Peg Bachenheimer shows her imaginative landscapes and abstractions in encaustic wax. In Fecundity, Ronan Kyle Peterson displays wheel-thrown red earthenware that embraces a "comic-book interpretation of ... the perpetual organic comedy of growth and decay." And in Embellished, former Craven Allen director Paul Hrusovsky comes home with a clutch of new paintings, complicated with stencils and silk screens, which portray organic shapes in what the artist calls "a cacophony of excessive adornment." —Brian Howe

This is going to sound crazy, but did you know there used to be an underground mall under Cameron Village, and that it housed nightclubs that both incubated local rock and hosted legendary touring acts as diverse as R.E.M., Barry Manilow, Jimmy Buffet, and Chuck Mangione? In the late seventies and early eighties, before it was shut down because of concerns about safety, The Village Subway—aka the Raleigh Underground—roiled with nightclubs such as The Frog and Nightgown and The Pier, where Sonic Youth recorded the cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" that appears on Confusion Is Sex. This rich history, mostly lost beyond some hazily remembered blogs, is the subject of a new exhibit at The City of Raleigh Museum, which runs through January after a sold-out, wait-listed reception with photographer Chris Seward. His dynamic black-and-white photos from the scene capture now-famous names and local, proto-indie-rock bands such as The Fabulous Knobs and Arrogance in their primes. More than two hundred photos are featured in the exhibit, along with flyers, videos, and other artifacts. —Brian Howe

In 1944, Recy Taylor, a twenty-four-year-old black sharecropper in Alabama, was kidnapped and gang-raped by six young white men. When local police failed to handle Taylor's assailants properly, the NAACP sent its own investigator: a strong-willed young activist named Rosa Parks. The righteous outrage over Taylor's case highlighted the intersection of racism and misogyny and helped establish Parks as an essential organizer for black Americans in their struggle for equality. This 2017 documentary by Full Frame founder Nancy Buirski— inspired by Danielle L. McGuire's excellent 2010 book, At the Dark End of the Street—corrects the erasure of black women from midcentury activism for racial justice. The black feminist writer and activist Audre Lorde famously proclaimed that women are powerful and dangerous. If you didn't already believe it, bearing witness to Taylor's legacy will convince you. —Allison Hussey